Have 80K to invest and want to start a trucking company looking for advice

You should not listen to anyone here who hasn't actually started a trucking business...I suggest you lease the truck or trucks on with a carrier for a couple years...before going completely solo and talk with owner ops who have made this thing work...I bought my truck for 47k 3.5 years ago, it's paid off and I'm just cruising piling money up...I have records and settlements you are free to look at...I made plenty of mistakes but my ground game was near perfect because I didn't have a family to feed...

So just get the naysayers out of your head because they haven't done anything to begin with but steer someone else's truck.

 

Actually, you have no idea of knowing what the "naysayers" did. I know for a fact that several of them who provided advice in contrast with his plan most certainly DID have their own company. One of them had health issues and had to sell the company, another involved the death of a close family member who helped run the business and got out of it altogether. When you begin judging others based on advice you don't want to hear, you're part of the problem in regard to providing bad advice.

 

Nothing could be further from the truth. As for all the advice saying you need to be a company driver first, etc., again, not necessary. You do need to learn the business though. If you're a good financial guy you can start and build a successful trucking business without ever having entered the cab of a truck. You will need to know your numbers better than the back of your hand. You will need to know how to deal with drivers, mechanics, brokers, shippers, et al. There are a million ways to lose money in this business and you better know them all.

 

Grab a new truck on a lease....
....create a company,
.....lease the truck back to the company
......bank your 80k as backup money for the times when
the truck is down or held up from being productive.

Keep the truck busy enough to pay for itself and pay the company's bills.

Just a thought....don't even know if it's legal or feasible but that's what came to mind
when I saw the thread.

 

I have 2 friends who own trucks...they get on as a owner/op, drive it for a couple months, hire a driver to drive their route, then they move on to rinse and repeat elsewhere..One guy gas 4 trucks, all with drivers he's hired, 2 at CT 2 at swift..
They are very happy and content...seems like a super safe route, with outs

If not that, and your gonna gamble, then definitely head to oilfield with your trucks

 

It can be done but it is hard. I see no problem if you have never driven and want to own trucks if you are willing to learn. But you will never make any money with 2 trucks unless you are driving one yourself.

So many on here make this out to be complicated but it is really not.

Figure your costs there are plenty of examples on here of what it cost to run a truck and if you are not driving it add some more to fuel and maintence because nobody will take care of something that like you will.

What really matters is your ability to go out and sell yourself to customers and brokers, stay organized and provide great service and put your heart and soul into it and you will be fine.

I started off with 3 trucks a little over 4 years ago and I had a customer (the reason for starting into this) I quickly realized that 3 trucks were not going to cut it and was working 100-120 hour per week either trying to gain new customers writing proposals to banks and anyone else for why they should give me money so I could get new trucks. What I am getting to is you must be willing to put in a lot of work and come up with solutions for you customers problems and a way to help them.

 

The absolute best advice I could give you is to buy one truck, one trailer, and you drive it yourself.

 

If you haven't actually worked in the field that you're wanting to hire an experienced driver for, how will you reply to his request for "we need a new 675 flatbed stretcher and im at the TA where I can get one for $300???"

You gonna let him buy it, or get one off Amazon where they are a lot cheaper?

 

OK here's your business plan. Buy me an $80,000 truck. Then stay in the army so you can save another $40,000 for the high insurance cost( since I have no experience). Then save up another $20,000 For the damage I will do while learning. After that save up another $20,000 fuel. That should get us through a few weeks with all my out of route miles. Then make sure you find me some good loads. And oh, I need to be home every other day. I'm going to need insurance and a 401k. I won't work for any less than $.50 a mile. And I won't go to NY, chicago, California or any big city. I know I didn't say anything about plates, truck insurance, maintenance and other costs. But I'm just your truck driver. I can't be bothered with that stuff. I'm going to need a cash advance because I can't drive this truck and will abandon it because there is a scratch on the door.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is if you don't find the right drivers these are the things you will put up with. What are the chances you will get a good experienced driver to leave his good job to drive for you? Possibly you could drive one truck and then train someone to drive the other. But even with me not being a driver yet I can tell these are things you haven't thought about. It's not just about buying a truck and making money. There is way more involved. Especially when you plan on other people driving them.

RUN FROM THIS IDEA! DON'TDO IT!!!

 

Thats amount of money seems quite low to start up and buy 2 trks. You will need to buy good trucks to insure theres no immediate maintenance loss. That is very costly. And can shut you down before you even get started. Divers can and will tear ur trucks up. Also, insurance, bobtail and liability and a few other things just to get started. Rather its flat bed, reefer or what ever each have some if their own regulations. Not following them will dif shut you down. DOT is brutal. The fines for companies and drivers now will close a small company down. This will be the area that needs the most knowledge at first in my opinion. You can be the beat dispatch in the world with the best customer's but a crap compliance department will close your doors. Good luck!!!!